If you watch professional
football, you will almost certainly have witnessed the little charade that takes place every time an injured player is treated on the field
of play. After the trainer, or physio as he now likely to be called, has finished
his treatment and the player is fit to resume, the player is made to retreat to the
touchline and await the referee's signal before he can return.
The International FA Board, meeting in Switzerland last March, added to that situation with the
second of their two alterations to the laws this year Perhaps it is worth looking at the law on injuries and what has caused all this
to come about.
The law says The referee stops the match, if in his opinion, a
player is seriously injured and ensures that he is removed from the field of play.
This raises two points. Firstly, the game is not stopped if, in the referee's
opinion, the player is only slightly injured. In fact the law actually says the
referee must allow the game to continue until the ball is next out of play. The
second intention of this law is that injured players must be treated off the field
of play.
The law has said that for as long as I can remember and no one seemed to
worry about it one way or the other. However, a few years ago top level players
started rolling about in agony after the slightest touch. The referee thinking it
was a serious injury, would stop play and call for the player to receive attention.
The referee would then find very often that by the time the physio had reached
the player, he was up and about as if nothing had happened.
To try and dissuade players from shamming injury, FIFA decreed that any
player who led the referee to believe he required treatment, would have to leave
the field on a stretcher whether he needed it or not. We had those slightly
ludicrous incidents, where perfectly fit players were stretchered off, only to
jump off the stretcher as soon as it reached the touchline and call to the referee
to be allowed to return to the game.
We don't see the stretchers coming on now but players are still sent to the
touchline after they have received treatment on the field of play. The
International FA Board, has now added: 'The injured player may only return to
the field of play after the match has restarted.'
The reason for this, I have on the good authority of a member of the
International Board, is to make it fair. What he meant was, that according to the
law, the player should have been off the field getting treatment while the game
continued. Therefore it is only fair that as he had been treated on the field, he
should now wait until play has recommenced before he can rejoin.
Many people of course would query whether the whole treatment of injuries is
fair in the first place. Take the situation where a player is injured in a tackle. As
the innocent party he has to leave the field of play but his opponent who was
responsible for his injury can stay. Also it is worth remembering that this doesn't
apply to a goalkeeper who is injured. It would obviously be farcical for the
goalkeeper to hand over his jersey and go to the touchline only to be recalled as
soon as the game has restarted. So why, many ask, does it have to happen with
other players?
Although this law is applicable at all levels of football, I know that in the
lower echelons of the game many referees ignore it. They simply stop the watch,
get the player treated and then get on with the game. I wonder if it now needs a
complete rethink.
Dick Sawdon Smith